MUSIC AS CULTURE Marcia Herndon And Norma McLeod MUSIC AS CULTURE MARCIA HERNDON University of California at Berkeley and NORMA McLEOD University of Otawwa Second Edition NORWOOD EDITIONS Darby, Pennsylvania 1982 2 1981, Norwood Editions Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Herndon, Marcia Music as culture. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Ethnomusicology .I. McLeod, Norma, joint author. II. Title. ML3798.H46 781.7 79-19209 ISBN 0-8482-4479-6 lib. bdg. Manufactured in the United States of America NORWOOD EDITIONS, 842 Main Street, Darby, Pa. 19023 3 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION We greatly appreciate the opportunity to prepare a revised and updated edition of Music As Culture. That this edition should be presented only two years after the initial printing is a source of real pleasure to us, since it allows us to take full advantage of the comments and suggestions of our colleagues. This edition owes much to their careful criticism. In particular, we should like to thank David P. McAllester, Stephen Feld, and Cynthia Kimberlin, whose generous and thoughtful help has been much appreciated. We have included those developments in theory, practice and focus which have emerged since the beginning of the first edition. For example, thorough investigation of many questions now tends to demonstrate that music is not as subliminal and nonverbal as was once thought. Rather, ethnomusicologists have begun to view it as a consciously manipulated phenomenon. Music is constructed, discussed, and judged. Innovation takes place as much in the light of social pressure as in that of aesthetic judgment. Thus, while ephemeral, music ranks as one kind of social fact, fully amenable to the manipulations applied to other social facts. Yet music remains a creative, aesthetic act, still representing many unanswerable questions. The i heavy patterning and redundancy balance against its innovative creative aspects. Music fits within the society in which it develops, to be sure. Yet each music is an endless source of variation and change, and sometimes transcends its function. We agree with King (1980) that in watching the interplay of action in a creative art, we feel the need to re-define social structure from that which is norm active and patterned, to that which is possible. It is the nature of art to seek the outer limits of itself, and, having found them, to move into the unknown. The creative person may represent society part of the time; but sometimes, one blunders beyond the known l response the standard answer. One is not always I, the social animal; the creator also represents the seeker, and thus confounds all the sage comments, concerning traditional forces within human life. Hopefully, we shall be happily debating these. I and other facets of music the patterned and the creative for some time to come. This edition owes much to the kindness of Norwood Editions, who have believed in us from the beginning. In particular, we thank Jerome Weiman, without whose interest this book could never have been published. We also owe much to Billye Tali Madge, who has once more valiantly struggled with our copy and won out over both of us; and to Carmah; Scott, whose eagle eye pounced on typos and split infinitives three other proofreaders failed to see. I Norma McLeod University of Ottawa June 1981. ii 4 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION This book is the direct result of extensive discussions, telephone calls and correspondence with many colleagues. At the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1971, a number of people came together in a casual discussion of the needs of ethnomusicology. A number of areas were identified at that time, with agreement that the immediate need was for a comprehensive textbook for introductory courses in ethnomusicology. Although it was recognized that several good books are available, no one book had, to that point of time, attempted a synthesis of both the cultural and musical aspects of ethnomusicology. Accordingly, we, the authors, set out to identify the areas which everyone agreed upon as necessary in a comprehensive introductory text on ethnomusicology. Having circulated a questionnaire and elicited responses both formally and informally from a wide range of colleagues, we created an outline. Our main area of concern was with the range of implications music has, both as a product of human behavior and as an integral part of human interaction. The first questions which arise in preparing an introduction to ethnomusicology are: "What is music?" and, "What is ethnomusicology?" In answering the first question, although agreement is reached that iii music is humanly structured sound, its particular aspects vary from culture to culture. The second question is even more difficult to address than the first, since it is necessary to consider approaches to music from anthropology, musicology, folklore, linguistics and, more recently, from a combined perspective of all the preceding. The key to ethnomusicological investigations is fieldwork in living societies. Fieldwork is not simply a matter of knowing and acquiring equipment, taking recordings and photographs, keeping a journal and knowing procedures. Rather, one must have a firm ethical base and sound ethnographic background in order to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities as Densmore's teaching American Indians how to "sing properly" before she would record them (as mentioned in Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music). In addition, one must know how to formulate hypotheses and test them. In the formulation of hypotheses, it is helpful to, consider current theory concerning the musical occasion, the possible contexts for musical performance, and how context may affect musical form. Knowledge of the status and role of musicians and their interrelationships with audiences is important background for the ethnomusicologist; as is knowledge of perception and the learning process (cognition, proxemics, myths, evaluation of performance, teaching methods, learning abilities). Music often plays a vital role in rituals, ceremonies, politics and social control. It may also be involved in many other aspects of human life. Since human groups are continually in a process of change, it is necessary to" have some idea1: how music changes with time, and what factors may institute or prevent change from occurring. Music may be removed from its context and iv 5 considered as an isolated entity. In so doing, one traditionally transcribes recordings. This process initiates two major types of problems: the nature and goals of transcription and, the fallibility of Western notation. It therefore becomes necessary to discuss not only the problems, conventions and aims of transcription, but also, how the goals of the ethnomusicologist influence the choice of transcription philosophy. The best example of this to date is found in England's Symposium on Transcription in Ethnomusicology, 1964, in which several scholars transcribed the same piece, with markedly different strategies and results. Since Western notation is incomplete - not allowing for indication of such things as up glides to a pitch, rasp, or dozens of other performance devices - conventional alterations of the traditional notation system must be considered. In addition, mechanical aids to transcription, such as Seeger's Melograph, should be evaluated. Finally, a methodology for transcription must be included. Once the problems of transcription and notation have been considered, the real problem of analysis emerges. Approaching analysis in terms of its possible goals, each of the six current structural poses must be delineated (Tovey and post-Tovey, Kolinsky, Merriam, Lomax, Hood, McLeod). Some of the problems one encounters are as follows: size of sample; determination of analytic elements; aesthetics and value systems; variation; definitive performances; analysis of a single song versus analysis of a style, form, or genre; computer assistance. Since much of the world's music is sung, it is only natural that attention be given to the relation- ship between music and Language. What are the boundaries of speech and song, and how does one determine them? Does music constrain text, or does v text constrain music? Are "nonsense" syllables really nonsense, or might they carry meaning? What are the possible levels at which meaning may reside in music? If music is a code or a multi-dimensional symbolic system, full clarification and decipherment of the code or symbol systems is vital. In moving toward an ethnomusicological perspective, knowledge of what the analysis of sound reveals about culture is needed. Also, knowledge of what the analysis of culture reveals about sound is needed. Whatever its particular form may be, the interrelationship of music and culture is real, integral, basic and approachable. The limits, goals and prospects for ethnomusicology are similar to culture in that they are always changing. Through a view of past ideas and influences, it becomes possible to understand current trends: preoccupation with analysis, utilization of linguistic theories, search for objectivity and understanding. Ideally, an introductory text should cover all aspects of human musical behavior. The ultimate objective has long been the fusion of the specifically musical and the specifically behavioral aspects of ethnomusicology. There has been a continuing tendency toward separation between music studies and cultural studies. Unfortunately, Merriam's remarks about "...books, articles, and monographs...devoted to studies only of music,